Sunday July 12, 2020 ~ VICTORIA, BC [Updated July 15, 2020]
by Mary Brooke, editor ~ West Shore Voice News
Input from parents and guardians about how the school experience has been during COVID-19 so far is being sought by the BC Ministry of Education through an online survey.
A well-composed 10-minute survey touches on a good range of points, including the use of technologies during the at-home phase of the pandemic, how much parents had to be involved with their child’s learning at home, the transition to in-school/at-home in June, and whether teachers and school districts provided adequate support and communications.
The Ministry says that parent responses are “crucial to developing new policy to better serve our students and schools as we move forward”.
It is necessary to identify your child’s grade and school as part of completing the survey.
The survey is online during July at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Parent_Survey_EDU .
Gearing up for Fall 2020:
Survey results will be included in the Ministry’s plan for September’s return to school, which Education Minister Rob Fleming says is coming in three weeks (perhaps ahead of the BC Day long weekend).
On Twitter, Minister Fleming wrote: “Parents & guardians: as we continue to plan for September’s return to school, @BCCPAC and I remind you to take our survey on how June’s return to classrooms went for your family. Your input will be considered in our plan, to be announced in 3 weeks.”
On the Restart BC page for Phase 3 the government states: “A return to full-time in-class learning will happen in September 2020, if it’s safe to do so.”
COVID pandemic continues:
As schools in BC head into the 2020-2021 academic year they are dealing with the ongoing presence of the COVID-19 virus in communities. This is the lived reality now during the pandemic until there is an effective treatment or vaccine against the novel coronavirus that began emerging in January of this year. The economic shutdown driven by public health began mid-March in BC.
Learning from being back in-class in June:
In June schools were reopened on a voluntary basis, primarily so that the BC Ministry of Education could have some data and feedback before launching a plan for September, it was stated by Premier John Horgan in Victoria on July 9.
“Finding ways to operate with the virus is at the front of our minds. Public confidence is critical,” said Horgan during his media availability.
“We are the only province that will have real evidence in classrooms and virtually,” he said, referring to students being back in class in June. “Thirty-eight percent of kids came back to classrooms,” he stated proudly, as it was an indication of confidence.
Horgan said he feels that input from trustees, superintendents, teachers and parents will lead to better knowing “to what’s in the best interest of their kids”. With feedback from the June time frame Horgan says BC will be “better prepared than other provinces”, in response to a question as to whether there should be a national strategy on return to school during the pandemic.
Horgan wants the “education system to be robust and fully operational as we can make it”. He said regarding BC’s efforts to deal with COVID-19: “We are the the only province that got kids back into a classroom so we can have good data and a better understanding of the challenges we will face in September.” The aim is for “parents, teachers and kids to know what the rules will look like”.